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Rendering

Senpai sat behind his home computer and navigated to the website address Nagatoro texted him earlier that day. The new browser window he opened obscured a background image featuring his most recent painting—of a seated, smiling, sexy naked girl.

A combination of text and flashing images greeted him. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked himself out loud.

An instant later, as if she'd heard him, his phone lit up and rang. "Hello."

"Sup, Senpai?"

"I got the login information for the Vapor account, but I'm not sure what you want me to do with it." Senpai clicked his mouse. "I never played this game before, and there are an awful lot of options."

"Don't worry. I know this game pretty well. My brother plays it all the time. You want to get into Character Setup Mode."

He clicked the selection. "I see that, but it only gives me a bunch more options. I can pick heads and torsos and legs and clothes. I have no idea what to with this."

"None of those things apply. You want to go to the bottom and click on Advanced."

Senpai clicked. "It's giving me an entry screen. The interface looks like a drawing program, but it's got settings for camera angles and lighting too. It's going to take me more than a day to figure this thing out."

"Are your parents home?"

"No. They're both working late, as usual."

"Hang on. I'm coming over."

"Are you sure?"

"It's only a ten-minute walk."

Senpai looked out the window. "But it's raining."

"It's a six-minute run."

"But…"

"Do I strike you as the kind of girl who can't handle a little bit of water?" The line went dead.

Six minutes later, the doorbell chimed. Senpai opened the door to reveal a huffing Nagatoro dressed in a green top, blue shorts, and sneakers—thoroughly drenched. "I'm here," she gasped between breaths.

"I see." Senpai closed the door as his friend dripped water in the foyer. "And you're soaked."

"This isn't the first time, or even the second. Come on, Senpai. You know the protocol. Where's your dryer?"

He pointed down the hall. "I'll get you a fresh towel."

Senpai trotted up the steps, retrieved a towel from the bathroom, and jogged down to the laundry room.

Nagatoro stood in front of the humming dryer naked with her arms crossed over her chest. Water dripped off her body onto the floor. She reached for the towel.

Senpai handed it to her and pushed his glasses up his nose. Then he stood there, blinking as Nagatoro dried her hair, shoulders, and breasts.

"Can I get you some clothes?" he asked.

She pointed to the dryer's digital readout. "Mine will be ready in thirty minutes. No need to bother." After drying her thighs, calves, and toes, she gave her hair a final rough brushing, whipped her mane over her shoulders, and set the towel atop the machine. "Let's go, Senpai. Give me the tour. This is the first time I've ever been in a real live pervert's house."

Senpai pursed his lips and ignored the gibe. He led her through the living room, kitchen, dining room, garage, master bedroom, bathroom, and guest room before ending the tour at his bedroom.

"Your place is nice." Nagatoro planted her bum on his bed. "It's too bad you're all alone most of the time, but I guess that gels pretty well with that loner persona you're cultivating." She glanced around. "Is this the first time you've ever had a girl in your room?"

"Does my cousin count?"

Nagatoro leaned back, crossed her legs, and smiled. "Only if she was naked."

"Well, no. Then you're the first."

"Enough chit-chat." She hopped to her feet. "Let's figure this thing out."

She stood behind Senpai and together they figured out the steps required to enter a custom graphic set into the game. As they worked, she rested her hands on his shoulders. Once in a while, she bent forward and pressed her body into his to take control of the mouse. Nagatoro giggled when Senpai blushed, though he managed to maintain his composure for the most part.

He's getting much more used to this.

She glanced down at her bare breasts compressing into his shirt.

And so am I.

Eventually, they got to the point where the program required graphic input. "Rendering a full model frame requires entering the subject art from a minimum of four angles," Senpai said. "Although we can add more if we want."

"Okay." Nagatoro took a few steps back and dropped her arms. "Put me in, Mr. Director."

"Front first." He directed his model by pointing his digital pen. "Feet shoulder length apart. Arms out at thirty degrees."

Nagatoro separated her bare feet and stretched her arms out to the sides. "Ninety." She lowered them halfway. "Forty-five." She lowered them a bit more. "Thirty. How's that?"

"Perfect."

"Do I have to stay like this for an hour?"

"No. It's not like a painting. This will take me ten or fifteen minutes per angle tops."

He deftly entered Nagatoro's image with the digital pen and drawing pad.

"Okay, profile."

Nagatoro turned.

Ten minutes later. "Back."

She turned again.

"Now, top." He stood on his chair, and Nagatoro approached. He entered the last angle image onto his pad from above. It took a bit longer than the others.

"Are you done yet?" She asked at the twenty-minute mark. She shifted from side to side.

"It's taking a little longer because I've never draw anyone from this angle before. I need to get the curves of your breasts and bum just right."

She looked up with a wicked smile. "You sound like such a pervert when you say that."

Senpai groaned. "I'm almost done. Please cooperate."

"Please what?" She reached up and grabbed Senpai's sensitive sides. He jerked and convulsed as she tickled him.

He swatted her hands away. "Stop that!"

She found new openings of attack. "Why?"

"You need to follow my directions, remember? I'm the director. Give me five minutes. I'm almost done."

She lowered her arms and took a deep breath. "Okay." For the next five minutes, with great effort, Nagatoro forced herself to stay still.

"There. Finished." Senpai stepped off his chair and sat down. "I'm supposed to do the facial input with photographs, and then I have to blend it."

"Oh, right. Sakura told me about that. She said the gamer guys tried to blend her head with one of the defaults."

"For Sakura?" Senpai shook his head. "That would look awful."

"I know, right? Whatcha doing now?"

"I'm telling the AI engine how to render your body."

"From the four inputs?"

"Exactly."

Nagatoro stood behind Senpai and watched him work. As he adjusted some sliders, she ran her hands through his hair. "You're such a poofball. You need a haircut bad."

"Please stop that. I need to concentrate."

"EEEEP!" Senpai jumped when she assaulted his armpits.

"You sound like a girl."

He turned. "If you don't stop bugging me, I won't be able to finish."

Nagatoro straightened. "So stop me."

"How?"

"Don't ask me, Mr. Director. That's your call." She touched her ankles together, clasped her wrist behind her back, and shot him a devious smile.

Senpai's eyes widened. Then he clenched his fists. He got out of his seat, knelt next to his bed, and pulled out some items—two rolls of art paper and three coils of rope. "Turn, please."

"Yes, Mr. Director."

Nagatoro stood at attention as Senpai bound her wrists behind her back. Then he knelt to tie her ankles.

"How's that?" He rose.

"I'm still pretty dangerous." She swung her arms around as her fingers reached for his belly. When he stepped back, she hopped toward him.

Senpai guided his model to lay face-down on the bed before tying her ankles and wrists together with his last coil of rope.

Nagatoro rolled her shoulders, then looked up at her director with a sly smile. "Feeling safer now, Senpai?"

"I think I'll be able to get some work done." He picked up his phone. "But first, I need to take some pictures."

Nagatoro's eyes bulged, and her body tensed. "No way, Senpai! You better not."

"Stop it. You know I'd never take a picture of you like this without your permission. I just need a few shots from the neck up. For the game model. Remember?"

"Oh, right." Her body relaxed, and she nodded. "Okay." She smiled brightly as he took close-ups of her head—front, profile, and back—before rushing back to his chair.

Nagatoro tested her limited range of motion and sighed with a smile. "You know, Senpai. You still have one free tickle pass on your account."

He turned from the computer screen and pointed at his chin. "I'd rather keep all my teeth in my mouth."

She groaned and frowned. "You know, Senpai. It's times like this when I really wish you had more guts." She rested her cheek on the mattress.

Senpai pinched his chin and paused before turning back to his screen. Fifteen minutes later, he rose. "All done."

Nagatoro raised her head. "How does it look?"

"I think it looks awesome." He walked past Nagatoro out of the room. "I'll be right back." Thirty seconds later, he returned with an electric toothbrush.

Nagatoro squinted and focused. "Why do you have that?"

He switched it on.

Nagatoro's eyes bulged, and her jaw dropped. "No. You wouldn't dare."

For the next half hour, Senpai mercilessly tickled his model. She shrieked, shouted, bucked, twisted, and howled as his toothbrush teased the soles of her feet. To mix things up, he set down the device from time to time to work on her waist. And her armpits—which proved to be extremely sensitive. Tears streamed from her eyes. Her screams shook the walls.

When he finally ceased his onslaught, exhausted, Nagatoro's hair looked like a crow's nest, her eyes glowed red with tears, snot oozed out of her nose, and perspiration coated her skin. Breathing heavily, she pushed her face into the mattress, shivered, and sobbed.

"Are you okay?" Senpai asked.

She shook her head, turned away, and continued sobbing. Senpai sat in his chair, and watched, and waited. Eventually, the tears subsided and her breathing steadied.

She shook her wrists. "Okay." She took a deep breath. "I'm fine now. Please untie me."

Once Senpai removed the ropes, Nagatoro bolted out of his room and dashed down the steps. His intuition told him to stay put. Five minutes later, he heard the shower running.

Ten minutes after that, Nagatoro, fully dressed and dry, walked into the room, all business. "Okay, Senpai. Show me what you did."

Senpai took her to the tutorial portion of the game where he'd inserted her as the Monarch character. Nagatoro's digital copy looked amazingly life-like wearing a princess gown that fit her proportions to a tee.

"That's incredible," she said. "When you spin me around, my hair flairs out and sways. When I jump, my breasts jiggle. Now I know why Sakura was so particular."

"This game has an incredible physics engine. You won't believe all the stuff I can do with your Monarch model."

"Lewd stuff?" She appraised him with piercing eyes.

Senpai blushed. "That's not what I meant! I mean, I can change your clothes and skin tone. Even your hairstyle."

"With the modded version of this game, you can do a whole lot more than that." She moved toward the door. "It's getting late, so I better be going." She pointed at the digital drawing tablet now resting on his desk. "Be sure to bring that to school tomorrow. The Game Club will provide a laptop."

A glance out the window revealed the timing was right as the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Senpai walked Nagatoro down the steps to the front door and opened it for her.

She stopped on the welcome mat and turned to face him. "Thanks for doing this, Senpai. Sakura is going to be jazzed when she sees what you can do for her." She paused. "And, um, thanks." Her face flushed bright red, and she looked away. "I had a really, really fun time."

She turned and sprinted down the street.

Author's Notes: Here's a longer chapter to make up for the two previous shorter ones. Also, I colorized my book cover. (Did anybody notice?) Once again, thanks for all the kind comments! — SK